QUEENS - The city has filled more than 100,000 potholes so
far this year - and Department of Transportation crews got some help from Mayor
Bill de Blasio himself Thursday in advance of a "pothole blitz" slated for all
five boroughs.

"This winter has really challenged the men and women of the
DOT -- they have extraordinary problem thrown at them. Every day has been
unpredictable," de Blasio said. "What has been absolutely predictable, however,
is they have to go to work they have to fill potholes, and they have been doing
it on a schedule such as we've never seen before."

The city has filled 113,131 potholes since January 1 - 12,631
of them on Staten Island.

"That is a stunning amount of work in less than seven weeks,"
de Blasio said. "That's the most potholes ever filled at this point in the year
in the history of New York City."

Those potholes don't come cheap - to drivers replacing their
tires or to the city. De Blasio added $7.3 million to the current fiscal year's
budget to help cover the cost of all the road work.

"I was heartened to see the mayor agreed with my initial proposal
to fund fiscal year 2014 additional monies for road repair," Ignizio said, "and I'm happy to see it
happen."

The 12,631 potholes filled on Staten Island is nearly triple
the amount filled there this time last year - 4,727. But while this year's
pothole operation might be the tops citywide, it's not a borough record - some
14,014 potholes had been as of February 19 back in 2011.

The mayor, clad in a pair of jeans and a bright orange DOT
jacket, shoveled asphalt into a tremendous pothole on a residential street in
the Maspeth neighborhood of Queens. Joining him was DOT Commissioner Polly
Trottenberg, who said pothole requests - "coming fast and furious" - filed through 311 are being addressed within
two days.

"We hear from the drivers of this city," Ms. Trottenberg
said. "We know you're counting on us. We want to make the streets safe and as
smooth as we can for you."

To that end, DOT will be hitting the streets in all five
boroughs this weekend for a "pothole blitz," she said. They'll also start
re-paving entirely some of "the worst roads, where we need to go above and
beyond."

Among the locations slated for re-surfacing on Staten Island
are Travis Avenue from Draper Place to Mulberry Avenue; Richmond Avenue from
Christopher Lane to West Caswell Avenue, and Amboy Road from Page Avenue to
Bedell Street.

The DOT will also try some "cutting-edge new materials and
technologies," and will partner with engineering schools to learn what works
best.

The year's difficult winter has left the roads in
particularly rough shape, Ms. Trottenberg said. Many a driver has been relieved
to see a pothole crew one day and aggravated to find that asphalt ripped up
again the next.

"We're trying to fill potholes as quickly as we hear about
them, but it's true - freezing, thawing and plows then sometimes tear them up
again," Ms. Trottenberg said. "As soon as the weather really warms up and we
get out of the freeze/thaw cycle, then our program will really stick and hopefully
every pothole we fix will stay fixed."

And what about the dreaded Staten Island Expressway, home to
many a cavernous pothole and worn-away lane marking? Well, that's the state DOT's
problem - but Ms. Trottenberg said the two agencies work closely together.

"I'm happy to say we have been talk to the state at all
levels, with my counterpart and our counterparts with our roadway experts," Ms.
Trottenberg said. "And we're working with them on how we can come up with the
best maintenance plans for some of those roads."

The FDR Drive, for example, changes hands between the state
and the city 10 times in its length along Manhattan, Ms. Trottenberg said.